INTERVIEW: DMA’s

The DMA’s arrived on our shores with the whir of a klaxon as they dropped their second studio album For Now on April 27th 2018. It came complete with a signing and brief acoustic performance at Rough Trade East, before they set off on a solid two months of tour dates throughout the UK and across Europe. They’ve been over here before, from their native Australia: amongst the acts at Reading and Leeds festivals, supporting The Kooks homeland tour and headlining smaller venue slots in 2016. The album landed on the first day of said tour and has instantly claimed a greater fan base for the band, with multiple gigs already sold out. Compared to their debut Hills End, this album has the feel of a higher level of production, which has seen them analyse each detail, for a maturer – no longer strictly Brit-pop – record. “We’ve used different drum machines and synthesisers which has given the album a lot more depth.”

Although a six-piece onstage, they’re an equivocally close-knit trio who promote themselves as a ‘package-deal’ of sorts as member Jonny Took explains: “I play guitar but do a bit of everything, that’s why we promote it as all three of us – we all do the songwriting together.” As we spoke they were on route to Manchester, a city that entices them with comparisons to the early days of local indie behemoths Oasis and The Stone Roses. The salute has been made from higher too, as the Mancunian creature himself – Liam Gallagher  – has cast the group as a support act for his upcoming Finsbury Park set this Summer: the DMA’s “biggest gig to date.”

Speaking of the anticipation and possible cause for anxiety with their future plans, Jonny mentions he’s humbly trying to stay grounded during what is as of yet the fast pace of their careers. “It’s exciting. Last night I was excited for Rock City, this morning it was Soccer AM. I’m trying to just be in the present and take every day as it comes. Like: ‘you know what, I’m in Manchester tonight and I’m gonna enjoy being in Manchester tonight’ instead of freaking out about future stuff.” In a time when artists are vying for the limelight and forced into bands together by industry hotshots, it’s almost refreshing to see an act that started and remains friends but also tightly raise each other upwards. Whilst making the record the group were of course MIA and have started this UK leg of the tour with a ferocious appetite to be onstage and perform for their audience, be it any audience: “they’re rowdier in the UK. We love it. There’s a bit more of that football/crowd mentality of people getting together.” Coming up they have Summer Sessions in Glasgow with Catfish and The Bottlemen, Neighbourhood weekender in Warrington and Liverpool’s Sound City, amongst many more Brit music events to wet their palettes – their biggest UK headline tour was only the beginning.